A handful of weeks ago, I received an email from Reed’s asking if I would like to receive some free Kombucha samples. Naturally, I said yes. Kombucha is one of my primary go-to beverages when I want to sip on something besides water, and wine, beer or cocktails are not on the agenda.

I have enjoyed Reed’s Ginger Brew (aka ginger ale) on multiple occasions, but I didn’t know (before this pleasantly unexpected email) that Chris Reed was brewing ‘booch. Indeed, Reed’s Culture Club Kombucha is a newer venture. (Needless to day, growing up in the ’80s as I did, I loved the name of this product!)

When I said, sure, send me some samples and I’ll do a review, I didn’t expect a full case! Very exciting.

There were three flavors: Goji Ginger, Lemon Ginger Raspberry and Passion Mango Ginger. I let them chill for a day before cracking one open. I started with the Goji Ginger, which I expected would probably be my favorite, and indeed it was. I felt it really combined the best of both worlds–craft ginger ale and kombucha. It had just the right mix of sweet and sour, with a pleasant burn in the throat as it goes down. Super delicious.

I’m picky about kombucha, and I tend to buy the same few brands. Reed’s falls right in to line with my criteria because of its taste as well as its ingredients. On its simplest level, kombucha is fermented tea. But Reed uses organic oolong and yerba mate tea, as well as organic sugar, ginger, lemon juice and other fruit and fruit juices.

If you are unfamilar with kombucha, don’t turn up your nose at the sugar. The sugar feeds the yeast in the kombucha culture, which produces alcohol that in turn is turned into acetic acid by the bacteria in the culture (thus, kombucha’s sour taste). In the end, very little sugar is left (all but one of the varieties has 30 calories per serving, or less than 50 per 13.5-ounce bottle).

My next sample was the Lemon Ginger Raspberry. For some reason I was thinking it would be more fruity (maybe because I tend to buy kombucha that contains more herbs that fruits or fruit juices), but it wasn’t. Like Goji Ginger, it was only lightly sweet, pleasantly tangy and totally refreshing. Ditto for the Passion Mango Ginger.

Disclaimer: While I received the kombucha samples for free, I was not paid to do this post or asked to write a positive review. My opinions of the product are genuine.